By Phil Hecken
It’s time for the next Uni Watch design-a-uni (and logo) contest. We’ll get to the rules in a second, but if you happened to miss the beginning, it started last weekend. Based on a reader suggestion, and fueled by reader feedback, it was decided the next contest would involve a renaming, and then a redesign of a logo and uniform of two teams: the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins. The first part of the contest involved choosing a new name for the Cleveland baseball and Washington football teams.
The polling was conducted by James T. Huening (who does all my polls), and based on your votes, the top three new names selected for Cleveland were: 1) Spiders; 2) Barons; 3) Municipals. For Washington, the top three names were: 1) Federals; 2) Warriors; 3) Red Hawks.
During the week I received numerous comments for names that weren’t offered as choices, and the voting for the top two in each city was pretty close. This leads me to believe we don’t really have a consensus for new names. In fact, I even had a couple individual suggestions for naming EACH team “Americans” (Washington could play off their “Nationals” baseball team, and Cleveland also works on multiple levels — “American” [league], and “American” [Indian], which could pay homage to our native peoples — but the second one is treading a very slippery slope.) So, here’s what I’m going to do.
Instead of using either “Spiders” for Cleveland or “Federals” for Washington (although feel free to do so), I will allow contestants to choose ANY name for the new name, so long as it makes no reference to American Indians (for example, “Warriors” must make no use of native imagery). Since I’ll have a crack panel of judges, we will eliminate from consideration any name/logo which violates this, so bear that in mind please.
Today’s splash was sent in by Justin Myslinsky, who jumped the gun on the contest a bit, but he did come up with some interesting concepts:
Indians fan here with a couple submissions for the Cleveland “Indians” renaming. I chose Municipals for one just because I love the name and I went with Captains for the other 2 in reference to the lake lifestyle of Clevelanders! Hope you enjoy them. Love the website, keep up the good work.
Justin from TORONTO
Now, those won’t count for the contest (Jason can resubmit them, following the rules as set forth below), but they provide a good idea of what we’re looking for. What are we looking for? Well, three things specifically:
1) Pick A New Name (based on the parameters laid out above)
2) Design a Logo to go with your name
3) Design a FULL UNIFORM (for baseball, this means cap, jersey, pants and socks/stirrups; for football, this means helmet, jersey, pants, socks)
After you’ve done your design, describe your concept in 100 words or less, and why it was chosen. Normally, I set the cutoff at 50 words, but since you’re choosing a name, creating a new logo AND uniform, I’ll allow for more creativity.
You may select ONE new name/logo/uniform for each sport — but you must submit each separately. So, if you want to do a new Cleveland baseball and a new Washington football submission, I will ask that they be sent to me separately and with a different title in the “subject” bar.
OK? OK. It’s that simple.
We’ll set the deadline for submissions for APRIL 15, 2012 (Jackie Robinson day). I’ll begin showing the contestants the weekend after that. We’ll select finalists after all the designs are shown.
I haven’t decided upon prizes for this yet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something good.
Once you have finished your design (remember, cap/jersey/pants/stirrups PLUS you new logo for baseball & helmet/jersey/pants/socks PLUS your new logo for football), send them to me.
• If your entry is for the Cleveland Baseball Logo/Uniform redesign, E-mail me at: Phil.Hecken@gmail.com (Phil [dot] Hecken [at] gmail [dot] com) and put in the subject line: CLEVELAND BASEBALL CONTEST;
• If your entry is for the Washington Football Logo/Uniform redesign, E-mail me at: Phil.Hecken@gmail.com (Phil [dot] Hecken [at] gmail [dot] com) and put in the subject line: WASHINGTON FOOTBALL CONTEST.
Again, you may submit one design for each sport (or two total).
If you have any questions, post them in the comments below or email me at the same address as listed above. OK? OK!
Good luck to everyone, and happy concepting.
Benchies
by Rick Pearson
“Nothing like watching lotsa video of private jets and SUVs…”
And of course, the full-size.
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
And so, lets begin:
We start with Michael Emody, with new unis for next year’s junior circuit newbies:
Hi Phil,
I was thinking about the Astro’s wanting to change uni’s for their joining the American League in 2013, so I did kind of a mash-up of previous logo’s and kept the current color scheme, with a bit of orange thrown in.
Thanks,
Michael Emody
And shortly thereafter came a second set:
Phil,
I forgot to add some cap logo’s. And here’s some road versions with “Houston” spelled out.
Michael Emody
Next is Bryan Moss with some Tennessee tweaks:
Phil:
Can you please put the concepts on the website I’ve been looking at your website for about a year and you are awesome so is Paul. Here my concepts are the Titans concepts but with Oilers colors. Thanks Phil.
From B.Moss
We close today with James Comfort, who wants to take Brooklyn simple:
Phil
Here’s my concept for what the Brooklyn Nets (Home & Road) should look like. No team in the NBA uses the black and gold color scheme, and Jay-Z’s team needs to wear black. Plain and simple.
-James Comfort
Thanks to all the concepters. Back with more next weekend.
MoVi’s NC2A 5 & 1
Everyone’s favorite uni critic, the one and only Mothervilker, loves his college basketball almost more than he loves life itself. While most of us dread the dead time between the end of the football season and the beginning of the baseball season, Jim finds himself in his own, very happy place, enjoying amateur basketball, played the way James Naismith envisioned it in more than century ago. I wonder how many of you know that not only did he invent the sport of basketball in 1891, he is often credited with introducing the first football helmet (Naismith, not Vilk). He was also a Canadian. No wonder the Vilkman loveth.
Jim (Vilk, not Naismith) has been kind enough to take time away from watching his most favorite sport (remember, indoor soccer isn’t really a sport) and his favorite tournament to bring us his top five, and one worst (and probably a couple honorable mentions too, I haven’t looked yet) matchups of the NCAA tourney. So, without further ado, here’s Jimmer:
Last night’s games aren’t included, because I need them for the final list. These matchups are from March 18th to the 23rd — sixteen to choose from, but they weren’t all sweet.
5. Lehigh/Xavier — Xavier’s numbers need to be bigger or something.
4. Cincinnati/Florida State — Slim pickin’s this week, plus those neon unis are growing on me.
3. Creighton/North Carolina — Mmmm…aaarrrrgyle…
2. Indiana/Kentucky — Of all the teams I don’t root for, the Hoosiers are by far the best-looking.
1. Ohio/North Carolina — I know why Xavier has an X on the shorts, but why does Ohio?
And the bad one, Ohio/South Florida — The Bulls weren’t bad, but those BFBS Bobcats unis were bad enough for both of them.
No list next week (you’re welcome). Final list will be the following Saturday, and the mega best-of-the-tourney list will be next Sunday (Easter). See you then!
Thanks, Jim…just when I figured I had you pegged for at least one honorable mention, you stick to the script. And how often does one team get both the *best* and *worst* looking game in the same 5 & 1? Like, never, right.
OK — take a well-deserved break and we’ll catch you in two weeks.
And Finally…
”£”ŠAssuming the colorizers (or at least the G&G boys) wish to continue, I plan on making some changes to the format. We’ll run the feature less frequently and the designs will be more prominently displayed. Still working out a kink or two, but I think everyone will be pleased when the next installment runs. Stay Tuned!
”£”ŠMy son had a special birthday treat when he visited his grandmother yesterday. Thanks to everyone who wished him a “Happy.” I told him about the adulation and he seemed non-plussed.
”£”ŠWe’re getting a little closer to a consensus on Benchies tee shirts. Looks like the initial design will say Bub’s Pub on the front with a small “Benchies” logo on the back. Again, this is all preliminary, but it seemed there was plenty of support for a t-shirt. Stay Tuned on that front too!
”£”ŠOK, everyone. That’s it for today. Best of luck to everyone who plans on participating in the contest. Enjoy the last Sunday in March. The hoops will all be over soon and then the Boys of Summer step on the diamonds up north for some games that count. Everyone have a great week.
“I know Mike’s black and gold adidas aren’t aimed directly at my heart, Ricko. But it sure feels that way.”
— Jason Bernard
Thanks for the kind comments yesterday, folks. Much appreciated.
I think the point Gary and I were making was not that we want praise constantly, although sometimes it’s nice but too much praise like too much criticism loses its impact, but that we have no idea if anyone actually looks at what we’ve done.
Even an occasional “that’s a nice picture” or (what I find frequently) “oh I didn’t see that in the black & white image but in colour it stands out”. When I do an action picture from say a football game I have to figure out exactly whose arm belongs to whom. And sometimes that brings out things that aren’t otherwise leaping out from the page.
As I said in my note I will still colourise pictures, and if they are sports related I will certainly send them along here. Less than there has been, and that will ease the pressure of trying to get things done by the weekend.
I don’t know Gary’s take on this, but I will still be around – less frequently, but still here.
We hope you continue to share your work and Gary too. And others.
I know what you mean about sometimes trying to figure out whose arm is that or what team does it belong to.
Thanks George.
I find it slightly ironic the choice of Warriors as a team name. Yes, Golden State uses it for the NBA… but wasn’t there a college team about 1993 that had to go away from Warriors because a logo change just wasn’t enough? Yep. Marquette.
Depending on the logo used with the term Warriors it could be considered derogatory. Golden State hasn’t used an indian based logo with their name since they moved from San Francisco to Oakland after the 1968/1969 campaign. Does that make the name any less derogatory because one team hasn’t used indian imagery since then? 99% of high schools probably still have indian imagery who still use the term Warriors. Several schools in Wisconsin have went away from the name Warriors in the last several years because people complain its ‘derogatory’. Do we now have certain levels that Redskins – a team thats been around since the 1920s – is more derogatory than Warriors??
“Depending on the logo used with the term Warriors it could be considered derogatory.”
~~~
exactly.
since this would be a “new” name, part of the rules of this contest stipulate no native imagery…and anyone using this for a name/logo needs to tread very carefully
while paul and i may have very strong (and similar) views on this topic, i don’t find the name “warriors” in and of itself to be problematic, since it doesn’t imply a specific race or ethnicity
it was #2 in the fan voting and the alliteration “washington warriors” seems to work
“redskins” is (IMO) derogatory, period
lets not rehash this again
Context matters. In and around Washington DC, the word “warrior” is used frequently in casual conversation. But it is used almost exclusively in reference to American service members. The word simply does not bring Indians to mind when used by or among Washingtonians.
Now, personally, I find the increasing use of the word “warrior” to speak of soldiers, Marines, sailors, or airmen distasteful for a number of reasons, but even those reasons have nothing to do with native Americans.
So while in, say, Cheyenne, a team named the Warriors might bring to mind Native peoples regardless of the team’s logos, a team by that name in Washington will tend not to bring to mind any Native tribe or person. Even if you put a big ol’ feather on the Washington Warriors helmet, people here are as likely to think it’s honoring the 101st Airborne as anything.
Wait, how is Warrior derogatory? Warrior is a synonym for Fighter. It doesn’t reference any specific culture or race, nor is it a negative attribute (unless you’re completely 100% opposed to violence of any kind, regardless of circumstance). You can use almost anything to represent a Warrior – a boxing glove, a spear/sword/axe/gun/(insert weapon of choice), a military insignia, or even Mel Gibson’s painted face from Braveheart.
At the absolute worst, Warriors is on the same level as Pirates/Bandits/Outlaws – which should all be perfectly acceptable names for sports teams.
or even Mel Gibson’s painted face from Braveheart.
And now you get Jewish complaints.
Wigan’s rugby league team are called the Warriors – and we supporters of Wigan Athletic dislike them. So I agree that the name should be banned ;)
Wigan’s rugby league team are called the Warriors — and we supporters of Wigan Athletic dislike them.
Wait, what? Am I missing something or are you saying you dislike the team you support?
Jeff – Wigan Warriors play rugby league. Eggchasing. A sport whose fans in Wigan laughed at the soccer team.
Now we, Wigan Athletic, are in the football Premier League and have taken the shine off the Warriors’ glory the dislike has grown. :)
Different sports, different teams.
Ah, ok then.
So this would be like Dodgers fans not liking Lakers fans?
Odd.
It is actually unusual – as inhabitants of a town/city tend to at least vaguely support other sports. But we have “history”.
Once Wigan Rugby were a big force in that sport. Winning everything in sight. Wigan Athletic were a lowly team in the lower divisions of the Football League.
We drew Leeds United (then a top team) in the FA Cup and asked Wigan Rugby if we could play at their ground. They dismissively said “no”. And their Vice-chairman was grossly insulting:
link
We haven’t forgotten.
Now we are a Premier League club we are no longer “a thriving little club who have done almost everything right..” and Wigan is no longer “the backyard of rugby league”.
Unusual sight from the late innings of the Cubs-Padres game yesterday.
link
Not only do all three players in the frame have jersey numbers in the 90s — even in spring training they don’t often go that high — but, presumably since these are extra jerseys prepared for non-roster invitees, none of them have names on them despite the Cubs normally having NOBs on the white jerseys (unfortunately) and the Padres having names on all of theirs.
(And don’t the Cubs look so much better with just the number there? Come on, Ricketts ownership, go back to how things should be!)
The other thing I noticed about that picture is it looks more like Cubs vs. Yankees than Padres. Padres should be brown.
and yankees should never be wearing softball tops
Maybe they just use “generic” jerseys for the handful of guys from the minor-league camp. Use the one with a number but no name that’s the best fit for the player, who’s likely too thrilled to be part of the major league team for a day to complain about a lack of name or imperfect fit.
When you’re at the game, you can wait for a name for your scorecard. link
BurghFan, that’s an awesome screen capture! (You’d think that no graphic overlay at all would have beena better choice…)
Seeing these jerseys makes me think that I probably hate NOBs even more than I hate over-50 numbers, and that I’d rather see guys with these jerseys on than with “real” numbers but with names over them.
And Rob, the Pads really are doing everything they can to stop looking distinctive, aren’t they? I like those varsity block numerals, but SD has already done away with the unique gold pants, and now their practice shirts no longer have their unique number font. The numbers are still gold, at least, though you can’t really tell in that shot.
I kinda wish there was a consensus on a name, actually. It’d be a better test of design skill if we were all limited to one specific name rather than being able to do whatever.
At least the relatively common “just go back to the spear logo and call them the Warriors” idea is banned.
yeah it could’ve been two contests.. first to pick the name, then second to design the artwork of the winning name… now the best name might not be the best artwork and vice versa
“ Assuming the colorizers (or at least the G&G boys) wish to continue, I plan on making some changes to the format. We’ll run the feature less frequently and the designs will be more prominently displayed…”
Sounds great!
I actually have some colorized pics on the back-burner that are just about ready to be seen.
Cheers
~B
It’ll be great to have some new work showcased!!
I saw some of your work as I went through the pages of your site. Nice job and feel free to share with us.
Also some nice pictures of Marilyn Monroe.
I like the “Astros” concept.
I’m wondering what it would look like if Michael would eliminate the white script entirely from the 3rd jersey, replace it with the black script found on his road jersey (and thus match the undersleeves on the 3rd jersey) and replace the black script on the road grays by using the red script from the home whites? I would not disturb the home whites. As for the caps, just have them match the respective undershirts.
I like the Astros concept, too. Some mash-ups just end up looking awkward, but not yours. I’d wear that.
I like the basic idea but I would leave Astros as straight instead of curved, as it was in the original. But the general idea with the shooting star works.
Thanks, guys. I appreciate the positive comments. I don’t know if the shooting star would work as well with the straight Astros script, as the shooting star came from, and worked well with the curved original Astros logo. Plus I thought it would make a nice twist, you know, an update on the classic logo.
Vilker, you can’t’ve been rooting for Kentucky. Calipary is just going to have to vacate all these wins in two years anyway.
Ha ha…good point!
Not a fan of him, either, so I really didn’t have a rooting interest in that particular game.
they may need to vacate, but holy shit — this is really the first time i’m watching (and actually paying attention) to ky this year…
they are not only big, but they’re fast as hell too
tough combo…
You get what you pay for, and Calipari pays for NBA players.
For the contest, are we limited to submitting just one uniform design, or by “full uniform” does that mean we can include a home jersey, an away jersey, and an alternate jersey?
Keep in mind, pants colors can change between home, away, and alternate jerseys also, so can we also change the color of the pants and show different “mix and match” options? Also, some baseball teams have home and away caps, are we allowed to submit more than one cap?
And what about throwback uniforms? Can we submit a throwback alongside our submission too?
Different people could have different interpretations of what “full uniform” means so I just wanted some clarification first so everyone’s submissions are consistent.
Just submit everything that your team would wear. The rules in these types of contests are always set in clay rather than stone. If your Washington football team has 3 different sets of pants, then submit 3 different sets of pants. The point of that rule is to prevent someone from submitting s home/road/alt for the “Cleveland Tacos” in red & yellow *and* a home/road/alt the “Cleveland Pizza” in blue and green.
what THE said
Justin, the Cleveland Captains is a great suggestion! The nearby Lake County Captains already have the name, but since they’re part of the Tribe system, it makes sense.
Great logo choices, too. Cleveland teams are either used to needing a life preserver, or they’re used to sinking like an anchor in the standings…
Nice unis, too. You set the bar high, Justin.
How about the Brave Captains?
link
Incidentally, Ed Crawford is from Ohio.
Ed fROMOHIO
We’re getting a little closer to a consensus on Benchies tee shirts.
Forgot to request this yesterday – will there be a V-neck version? If not, I’ll probably have to cut off the neck trim. I went a little nuts yesterday with the scissors and trimmed about 15-20 of my crew-neck shirts. I’m gonna be real comfortable this year.
Love today’s Benchies, by the way. It’s been nice not hearing about that Bert…er, Brett guy for a change.
You mean Brent Farve? Talk about a legendary player…
Ricko, a link I whipped up.
One of those “statement” tees.
I like.
No need for the Indians to change their name, any more than the KC Chiefs do. They just need to drop the Chief Wahoo caricature.
Sorry I didn’t chime in yesterday as I was actually doing some uni research in Washington, but I do want to say even though I don’t really offer much commentary on colorizers or contributors or conceptualistors (word?), I salute any all who do whatever it takes in a positive way to make Uni Watch the awesome site that it is.
Thank you all for all you do.
Don’t know if this site has every considered this idea, but it would be interesting to see concepts based on uniforms of the past in terms of wearing those uniforms during that time frame. For example, the tequila sunrise Astros only had a cream colored road uniform, which looked almost identical to the home version. Is there a better road uniform which could be designed? I always felt those Astros should have had a road uni which would have black where white appeared on the home unis, and the word “Houston” in white lettering across the chest.
Another example would be the 1970-76 Bucs, who might have worn a mustard top with “Pittsburgh” in black lettering across the front.
A Benchies shirt in link?
(link)
Unofficial design.
Maybe someday it’ll one of those prototypes we dig so deep to find.
but you bring up a good point TJ…
would it be better with ONE design and different available colors? or multiple designs?
cuz “bub’s/benchies” official colors are black &
goldcheddar according to rick…so… here’s black
and here’s gold
(thanks to JB for those)
Just go the Oregon route…official colors? What official colors?
But I’ll stick to the gold with black printing.
Surprised the guys at Bub’s never got into a yellow/gold discussion…
They wanted yellow but was a special order back then.
Settled for Athletic Gold (Cheddar).
And now, of course, it’s just…traditional for them.
Although the jerseys DO look awfully yellow in the strip, but that’s because they said they didn’t want anyone to think they wore Tennessee Orange, and I had to go with their wishes.
I love that benchies tee and those new names for the Washington football franchise and Cleveland baseball team. The original names never bothered too much, but now that I’m seeing some new names I’m changing my opinion and feel a change would be a good thing.
Anyone with this template in .PDS or .SVG? link Thanks in advance!
I haven’t commented much to this point though my submissions have been featured both on uni-watch and Paul’s ESPN column. I wanted to step in and say how much I enjoy and look forward to the colourizations and my hats are off to all who’ve attempted the art.
I also want to send kudos to Michael Emody for those outstanding Astro Home Concepts. Nice work!
I’m under the impression that the Indians are phasing out Chief Wahoo. If you even go to MLB.com and you scroll down the “teams” menu on the top right, there’s a “C” instead of Chief Wahoo.
That being said, my solution to the whole Indians controversy would be to just replace “Indians” with “Cleveland” on all the jerseys. Anyone with me??
Put “Cleveland” on ALL the jerseys!
But seriously, I think that your proposal would be a good temporary fix until they can figure out what to do with the name. Key word: “TEMPORARY”.
How ’bout Cleveland Ethnics?
That way if someone’s offended, they can just say, “Oh, we didn’t name them for you.”
Y’know, like ethnic jokes…
“How many Ethnics does it take to change a light bulb?”
Like that.
In Cleveland, The Big Chuck and Li’l John show is famous for its Certain Ethnic sketches.
link
link
link
Call ’em the Cleveland Certain Ethnics. The rest of the country wouldn’t get it, but we would.
I like that idea, like the Baltimore CFLers who couldn’t use the name “Colts”. Then both the people who are offended and who aren’t offended could be appeased. The P.A. announcer could announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, here is the starting lineups for your Cleveland…” and then pause and let the crowd scream “Indians!”
And then when public opinion eventually decides that the name Indians is too racist or whatever, the crowd gradually will just naturally yelling such a racist and inflammatory name. And if they don’t, well I guess they’re just not offended enough, yet.
yes!
um, no
Like those Cleveland Captains unis. I never thought I’d see my Clippers as inspiration for a baseball uniform, but it works.
Sweatback is such a funny Uni Watch term.
The other day somebody suggested that the Chicago Blackhawks change their name to the Hawks and come up with a new logo. I just remembered link. There’s something about this particular execution that I don’t like (probably the overall shape), but I think this idea could be carried out in a pretty excellent way, that may actually appease ‘Hawks fans not thrilled with a change.
The Lakers in white is so so wrong.
Good day! This post could not be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
Worst. 5 & 1. Ever.
So I guess no one can use Potomac for the Washington team name as the name itself in an native american word.
I think the re-name/re-design-the-Cleveland-baseball-and-D.C.-football-teams contest is a great idea. I may have missed this somewhere along the line, but why not include the Blackhawks, Chiefs, and Braves? Or, to maximize our entertainment, might I propose a follow-up contest for those three franchises?
I think it’s limited to the Redskins and Indians because those are the two that are the most outrageous offenders. The other Native American themed teams, while still inappropriate in my personal view, are at least good deal classier with their identities.
Question: When you say we can choose ANY name for the contest, does that mean ANY name or any of the top 3 chosen for each city in the vote? Just curious.
Brilliant stuff, back to work now!
Until we find a new mascot for the Cleveland Indians, how about a interim, historically accurate term, such as the Cleveland Native Americans? That wouldn’t be extremely crowded on a jersey, right?
“BN” for Brooklyn? Uh uh. “BK”, maybe.